China Cracks Down on Internet “Losers”

Today I learned a new Chinese slang, 庐舍: (Pinyin: Lu She). The original meaning is “farmhouse”. When used as slang it is a phonetic translation of the English word “Loser”. Internet definition: Netizens who are over-indulged in the internet community on chat, animation, games and making friends etc. activities, without ambition and just muddling along. This group of people are so called “Loser Group” or “Loser Clan” (“庐舍族”). This forum post explains with a nice piece of “anti-loser” music video propaganda.

Lyrics:

Since got on the internet, I don’t think about my future anymore
Chatting and video, life is dazed
Caught in porno, games are more crazy
Years are going by, life is down
Internet became their extreme
Society slowly becomes pale and gloomy
Indulged in happy making friends is really garbage
Time passes by, regretting is too late

Raise your two hands, let the world be more magnificent
Change self, control entertainment
Normalize life one step at a time
Let’s continuously go
Together Anti “Loser”
Come back to reality
Full of self-esteem
Believe tomorrow is more wonderful
Oh….

Since got on the internet, I don’t think about my future anymore
Chatting and video, life is dazed
Caught in porno, games are more crazy
Years are going by, life is down
Internet became their extreme
Society slowly becomes pale and gloomy
Indulged in happy making friends is really garbage
Time passes by, regretting is too late

Raise your two hands, let the world be more magnificent
Change self, control entertainment
Normalize life one step at a time
Let’s continuously go
Together Anti “Loser”
Come back to reality
Fully of self-esteem
Believe tomorrow …

Raise your two hands, let the world be more magnificent
Change self, control entertainment
Normalize life one step at a time
Let’s continuously go
Together Anti “Loser”
Come back to reality
Full of self-esteem
Believe tomorrow …

“Are you are loser?” “Did you ‘loser’ today?”… this is the daily pet phrase of the “Loser Group”. Currently, Chinese government and company offices are actively criticizing and cracking down the “Loser Group”. “Loser Group” is a large entity which includes students, white-collar class workers and even government officials and corporate executives (also called “Senior Losers”).

Today, not only in the developing counties like China and India, but also in United Sates, Korea, Japan etc. developed countries “Loser Group” are like “mice” crossing the street, being cracked down by government and non-government organizations. The voices of demanding banning these relevant websites are higher and higher. The reason is, while “Loser Group” is working or studying they focus on playing social networking games such as “Famer”, “Fighting Parking Spots”, “Slave Trade”, “Stealing Vegetables” etc. causing them to be behind of their work and abandoning their studies. (Above mentioned are mostly games on Kaixin, it will probably be “pet society”, “Mafia Wars” etc. for facebook.)

It is reported that over twenty companies mostly in the internet industry formed the “Anti-loser Union” to give warning and education to “Loser Groups” internally. For those who do not change will resort to being fired. The Union also stated that they will gather more business owners and professional managers in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou to join the “anti-office network loser group” operations.

Coincidentally, two government staff workers of Zhejiang Province were fired because of playing internet game “Growing Vegetables” at work. At the same time, Chinese government has also introduced a number of countermeasures to crack down on the “Loser Group”.

Why the obsessions with these games? Lei Wu, a business executive in Zhenzhou explained, using the game “Slave Trade” as an example, is a high speed and high paced game, it is easy to obtain a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. And also releases the stress from work and life. Unfortunately, the company will now be installing computer monitoring software. Cameras are also installed in the office, if game playing is ever found, the person is immediately fired. “Loser Group” have no other way but to give up their obsessions.

Recently, Kaixin, RenRen, MOP etc. dozens of websites are already being blocked by some companies in China. In United Sates, Myspace, Facebook, YouTube and other sites are blocked by U.S. schools and families. (Really? I haven’t heard that in the U.S. yet)

As expected, Chinese netizens got angry after this video was posted on 56. Singer of the song was soon human flesh searched. His name is Gu Xiong (顾雄) claimed to be once a “Loser” himself. He said he wrote the song intended to “wake up Chinese youth from internet addictions” and he loved to be called “Loser killer” by the netizens.

I guess I am lucky, my company allows everything. It seems like internet addiction is a growing problem in China. Society should use the correct ways to deal with this issue. I don’t agree with sending kids to camps, using electric shocks to threat the addiction etc. One kid was beaten to death in the camp recently…
Internet addiction is no worse than someone sitting in front of the TV for hours of a day, someone who is addicted to soaps, or someone who has to watch every sports there is. I think we can all relate to “once being a loser”, in certain degrees, aren’t we all addicted to something at one point? Moderation is the key, it really takes oneself to realize that.
“Anti-loser” campaign is needed but authorities, please do not abuse it.

People who are criticizing this have obviously never wasted months of their lives on a computer. It becomes an addiction that you don’t want to be doing as you are doing it, but are helpless to stop. I’m giving my laptop away, I can’t take this any more, seriously. I got laid off four months ago and have been sitting here ever since. Which is amazing, because I’m 22, seriously beautiful (not just the fat-girl-inner-beauty crap, I’m actually hot), with a good family and friends, but still manage to waste entire weeks on the internet. If my friends knew, they wouldn’t even believe what I’ve become. Programs like this are necissary for some people. You can’t knock it if it is helping people.

All I want to do on Facebook is keep up with friends and relatives to see how they are getting along with life. Every time I go to someone’s FB page their pages are just inundated with Farmville, Fish, Parks, Mafias, I sent you this gift, now send one back et al ad nauseum. Not all of us want to play these games, so …why can’t FB find a way to keep us from having to see this crap? They can redo their pages to include this. All I want to do is keep up with friends, and see how they are doing, not wade through the FB incited drivil! FACEBOOK, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!